This is a Game Boy Advance
It's time for my favorite post of the year, the year in reTROspect! My faithful reader and I look forward to this with baited breath each year. This post will summarize the games I completed for the first time with no evaluation trickery to speak of. I accept using save states in ways that I could replicate on a physical console (using a save state instead of having to put in Mega Man passwords, or a save state rather than simply leaving my physical console on if I have to go somewhere), but I actually did very little in terms of emulation this year. Of the titles I played, only Darkwing Duck, Super Star Wars, and Wario Land 3 were emulated, and all of those were on official collections. Here are the games I completed in 2019:
Advance Wars
Animal Crossing
Azure Striker Gunvolt
Darkwing Duck
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior 2
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Game & Watch Gallery 4
Golf Story
Jeanne D'Arc
Mario Golf: World Tour
Marvel's Spider-Man
Metroid Fusion
Metroid: Zero Mission
NBA 2K19
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Phantasy Star
Pokemon Let's Go Eevee
Pokemon Sword
Super Mario RPG
Sonic Mania
Super Punch-Out!!
Super Star Wars
Warcraft III
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Wario Land 3
Wario Land 4
Xenoblade Chronicles
Here were last year's gaming resolutions, and how I carried through on them:
1. Clear out 25 unbeaten games
I cleared 29, including some really long ones! Check.
2. Clear out more unbeaten games than I buy new games for my collection-not including Humble Bundles
Miserable failure, and I didn't even buy any Humble Bundles. I bought 60 new physical games this year, mostly on a handful of big local lots. They were great deals, so I'm really happy I didn't stick with this one.
3. Spend more time revisiting some old favorites just because I'm feeling like it (potential candidates include Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Mario RPG, and Punch-Out!!)
Great success! I played through DKC 1 and 2, and quit halfway through DKC 3 as I was getting a bit bored. I played through Super Mario World and Link to the Past again, and also beat Super Mario RPG
4. One of the 25 unbeaten games must include Bahamut Lagoon, and another must be Secret of Mana
Ouch. I actually played a ton of Bahamut Lagoon, and am knocking on the doorstep, but got waylaid several times by shiny new games and didn't actually finish it. I turned on Secret of Mana once, got bored, and didn't finish it. Let's roll this one over!
5. Play more new (defined as being originally released on a system capable of outputting in HD without modifications) games
Well, I finished 7 games between the Switch and PS4, and in total completed 11 games from the 2010s, so I'll say this is good enough.
6. Spend some time playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn-whether I beat the main campaign or not
I jumped on every free login promotion, and even subscribed for a month. I'm now level 43, and think two or three more free weekends should be enough to get me through the base campaign. Check!
7. Feel free to dump egregiously bad games and review them without finishing them if I feel like it
I really didn't play hardly any egregiously bad games this year, save for Super Star Wars, and I rather enjoyed that one despite the fact that it was not good at all. So I'll say this is good enough.
Five out of seven is pretty good for me, and one of them I don't regret breaking at all, so I'll say 2019 was a great gaming year. I finished a game every 12.6 days, which feels like about the right pace for me. One every two weeks is great.
Here are a few delightful visualizations of my low sample size year in review:
In 2019, I doubled down on my favorite genres, RPGs, sports, and platformers. I also played several Metroidvania games, as I've really grown fond of the genre in the last few years.
Buoyed up by two flawless games, RTS is the king of 2019. I loved Warcraft III so very much at release, and very little has changed. It rules. The true king of the year is probably Metroidvania games, as I played three separate titles for an average of nearly 9.0. Run 'n Gun games were obviously driven down by Super Star Wars, but that genre isn't exactly my favorite in any case. The big takeaway is that I played a lot of good to great stuff this year!
I was a bit surprised to see the GBA so high up here, as it felt like I played my 3DS a lot more. And I truly did in terms of total time, especially considering the lengthy run I had through Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, which is counted here as a Wii game. My runs through GBA games were also very short Metroidvanias in general, with only Advance Wars taking me more than a few days to beat.
The PC is king here thanks to Warcraft III, but I really enjoyed the vast majority of the systems I played this year. The PS4 was probably the highlight in general, with a ton of joy derived from Spider-Man, Sonic Mania, and NBA 2K19. It was a very disappointing year from the Switch for me, with subpar Pokemon experiences, and a very dull run through Golf Story.
Nintendo weirdly dominated this category despite me playing fewer Nintendo games than usual (12 in 2017, 14 in 2018, and a mere 8 in 2019). I was a bit more democratic in selecting games this time around, and also played fewer in total.
This is the most even split I've had between home and handheld since I started counting. Typically, I play a lot fewer games on handheld because I play so many RPGs on handheld to burn time. But this year, I played several Metroidvania handhelds and shorter RPGs that let me keep things more equal.
This was also a very even year in terms of quality. Home barely edges out handheld by .03!
When I said that I played fewer Nintendo games than usual, I worry that what you heard was that I played fewer games on a Nintendo console than usual. That is obviously not the case. I did play fewer Nintendo developed games than usual, but Nintendo's firm grasp on my gaming time continues to reign supreme.
While Nintendo may remain the king of quantity, I'd have to give the quality crown this year to Sony, which managed to maintain a rating of over 9 with four separate games.
I really kept my word to play more newer stuff in 2019, as displayed here. It also helped that I've played most of the stuff from the 80s and 90s that I want to, and that I've gotten a bunch of good deals on some newer stuff in the last few years.
The 2000s had a really well-reviewed decade here, with ten games averaging slightly more than 9.0 a piece.The 90s are the clear loser, with four other good games drowning under the weight of Super Star Wars.
And now for our annual reTROview Awards!
Game of the reTROview Year: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
This expansion and the base game are as good as RTS get. I was so thrilled to revisit these, and even more thrilled at the thought of a remaster coming, with some actual people against whom I can play.
Stinker of the reTROview Year: Super Star Wars
In truth, this is the kind of bad game that's still its own kind of fun despite being bad. It doesn't even compete with previous award winners that simply had no fun at all, but it was definitely the worst game I've played this year.
Median Game of the reTROview Year: Wario Land 4
Giving top ten lists and measures of central tendency for sample sizes this small is an exercise in silliness, but this one feels right. I enjoyed it, it wasn't among the standouts, and that's about it.
Newest Game reTROviewed: Pokemon Sword
This is about as new as it gets, and it's also the only game released in 2019 that I played this year! It was extremely disappointing.
Oldest Game reTROviewed: Dragon Warrior
I played the port of Dragon Warrior, but I really liked it!
The reTROview 2019 Top 10:
10. Animal Crossing
9. Xenoblade Chronicles
8. Super Punch-Out!!
7. Dragon Warrior
6. Bravely Default (I didn't finish it yet, so spoiler alert for one of my next reviews!)
5. Advance Wars
4. Sonic Mania
3. Marvel's Spider-Man
2. Wario Land 3
1. Warcraft III/The Frozen Throne
These are all really good games, and I would recommend them to anyone.
The reTROview 2019 Bottom 10:
10. Metroid Fusion
9. Pokemon Let's Go Eevee
8. Phantasy Star
7. Darkwing Duck
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2
5. Azure Striker Gunvolt
4. Game & Watch Gallery 4
3. Pokemon Sword
2. Golf Story
1. Super Star Wars
Due to my top heavy selection of games this year, I can only honestly say that one of these games is truly "bad". Super Star Wars is a total mess, so avoid that one, unless you really love Star Wars, bad games, or run 'n gun shooters. But I rated Golf Story as a 7, and Pokemon Sword at a 7.5, so I would say "average" is a more accurate rating for most of the games on this list. And I actually thought that Metroid Fusion was quite good, but when you only beat 28 games in a year, and the vast majority of them are pretty good, the top of your bottom ten is going to be filled with pretty good games. Maybe I'll just do a bottom 5 next year if I do a similar workload.
Now for my gaming resolutions for the upcoming year:
1. Complete 30 previously uncompleted games
I feel like I can play more this year as my infant son is a toddler now and a bit more self-sufficient. My wife has also pledged to play a few co-op games with me this year, so it's likely I'll pick up a few cheap ones there I would have previously filled with watching The Masked Singer. I also have 3 or 4 in the pipeline that are half done or more, so I think I should be able to do 30. It also makes doing top and bottom ten more interesting if there are a few games on neither list.
2. Buy all the new games I want, as long as it's a good deal. Also, add a really pricey game (more than $80) to my collection just for fun. Maybe Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance or Lufia II.
Last year's resolution to cut back collecting was just dumb, and this year I'm doubling down on collecting. I'm in the market, baby!
3. Replay some old favorites again
I can't tell you how enjoyable it was to run through some SNES favorites last year, and this year I'm going to do the same. I feel the urge to run through Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, Mega Man X, and Chrono Trigger this year, along with my customary Super Mario World and Link to the Past runs. It has been a decade since my last Chrono Trigger playthrough, and that's unacceptable.
4. I MUST finish Bahamut Lagoon
If I don't finish it this year, I pledge to the internet that I'll sell my copy of Earthbound. I really am fine with not playing Secret of Mana, though, so I'm not going to pledge it.
5. Finish the main campaign of Final Fantasy XIV once and for all
I have been really enjoying short bursts of the MMO, and could easily see myself subscribing for two months out of the year this year. This one is very doable.
And that's a wrap for the previous year. Hope you guys have a great one!
-TRO
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